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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Fair Ivy February 2016 Thyme Subscription Box Review

Fair Ivy is a gift subscription that sends handmade items from US artisans. Every box arrives beautifully and carefully packed and wrapped. This is an excellent subscription for gifting to someone who appreciates hand-crafted, quality goods produced in the US by a skilled artisan.

There are currently two subscriptions available- Thyme and Rosemary. The way subscriptions work is you sign up for one or both and you'll be shipped a gift package right from the featured artist that month. The two subscriptions send different items but alternate between jewelry and home goods. So this month, Thyme has a home item and Rosemary has jewelry. Next month, Thyme will have jewelry and Rosemary will have a home item. And so on.

The Cost: $36.95/month (includes shipping)What You Get: A surprise gift hand-picked by gift curators that comes directly from a US artist. Also included will be an info card describing the creation process, background, or inspiration. The gift could be anything from gold or silver jewelry, to artisan ceramic pieces to hand-stamped tea towels.

This month features a porcelain mug by The Foraged Feather. This is handmade and hand painted. It's almost too pretty to use!

The notecard included explains that this piece is glazed when "bone dry" and is fired only once for quality and durability. It needs to be handwashed but I'm pretty excited to use it. Being obsessed with tea and all.VERDICT: Fair Ivy makes for a wonderful gifting option. While it was fun to try this subscription, I think I'm a little too frugal to justify $36 for a mug, even if it is super pretty. However, there is also th option of jewelry and the fact that this supports artisans making a living with their hands and creativity. I do like that. I think in the future I would be more likely to gift this because it's easier for me to spend the cost of this subscription on someone else (rather than myself).

If you would like to sign up for Fair Ivy, you can do that here. They do operate on a waitlist but once subscriptions open for the new month, you'll receive an email saying subscriptions are open and you can sign up. It's first come, first serve.